04 July 2018, Berlin, Germany: Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary, sitting in front of a European flag at a meeting with Bundestag President Schaeuble in the German Bundestag. Bernd von Jutrczenka/ Press Association. All rights reserved.
On World
Refugee Day, 20 June 2018, Hungary passed anti-migrant laws championed by
right-wing nationalist Prime Minister, Viktor Orban.
The Hungarian parliament voted
overwhelmingly to pass the legislative package by 180 votes 18.
Amnesty International blasted
the laws as ‘draconian’. The UN has decried
them as “shameful”.
The Council of Europe is
the latest major organisation to weigh in. On 25 June it demanded that the
rules pertaining to “illegal immigration” be ‘repealed’. On 26 June 2018,
it released its full
report.
Criminalising support for refugees
The new
laws target individuals and groups who provide assistance – including legal
advice – to asylum seekers. Those convicted face up to 1 year imprisonment.
NGOs that provide advice and assistance to refugees also face a potentially
crippling tax of 25%. Amnesty has
detailed the new rules in an easy to read briefing[pdf].
The legislative changes were
labelled the ‘Stop
Soros‘ laws. George
Soros is a Hungarian-American billionaire financier and philanthropist. He
has given large sums of money to immigrant and human rights groups over the
years. He has also long been the target of far-right and antisemitic conspiracy
theorists, including in his native Hungary.
Shameful and blatantly xenophobic
UN Human Rights Chief, Zeid Ra'ad
Al Hussein, denounced
the laws as “shameful” and “blatantly xenophobic” in an unequivocally harsh
written statement.
Al Hussein decried the
‘disgraceful’ scapegoating of people, “simply because they are foreign”.
“As I have stressed repeatedly, we recognize
the responsibility of the Hungarian State to govern its borders”, the outgoing
UN head of human rights wrote, “But this legislation threatens the safety and
human rights of migrants and refugees, as well as the vital work of NGOs and
human rights defenders providing protection and assistance to them. It makes
illegal the act of helping those who may be in dire need”.
In violation of EU law
The Council of Europe has also
warned that the laws breach human rights standards. The “continent’s leading
human rights organisation” was established in 1949.
It is made up of 47 states, including the 28 EU member states. Hungary joined the Council on 06
November 1990, after the fall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of the Soviet
Union.
The Venice
Commission is the body in the Council that is charged with providing legal
advice to member states on matters involving elections, human rights, and
constitutional justice. The 61 member body asked
Hungary to hold off passing the ‘Stop Soros’ legislation until it had time
to properly review the laws, and offer its opinion. Hungary ignored this
request.
The Venice Commission was
therefore compelled to rush its review of the rules and only considered certain
aspects of the laws. But it has already called upon the
eastern European nation to “repeal”
the provisions targeting "illegal migration" saying they criminalise:
“the initiation of an asylum
procedure or asserting other legal rights on behalf of asylum seekers, it
entails a risk of criminal prosecution for individuals and organisations
providing lawful assistance to migrants”
First they target the migrants…
Hungary’s rule changes have also
targeted its constitution. The laws have amended[translated into English]
the Fundamental
Law of Hungary.
The most serious amendments to
Hungary’s Fundamental Law include, prohibiting foreign populations from
settling in Hungary, imposing a legal duty on all public bodies to protect the “identity
and Christian culture” of the country, “forbidding homelessness”, and
restricting the right of public assembly.
The UN Special Rapporteur on the
right to adequate housing slammed “Hungary’s move to make homelessness a crime”
as “cruel and incompatible with international human rights law” in an open
letter[pdf].
According to Hungarian news site index[translated
into English], 159 amendments to Hungary’s ‘Basic Laws’ passed with 159
votes in favour, five votes against, and zero abstentions.
The Daily News Hungary also reported
on 27 June 2018 that new laws restricting the right to assemble without a
licence have also just been proposed. According to Daily News Hungary, the law defines a meeting of two or more people
as ‘an assembly’, plans for public events must be reported to the police at
least 48 hours before hand, and the police will be able to ban a meeting if
deemed:
“likely to jeopardise public
order or security” or if it involves “unnecessary harm to the rights or
freedoms of other people ”.
Organisers of public gatherings
will also be personally liable for any “damage” caused at the event.
A long time coming
As far back as February 1999 Ferenc
Koezeg, the executive director of the Hungarian-Helsinki Committee, told
the BBC World Service:
"The Fortress Europe idea
does exist. [Hungarian] [a]uthorities really believe Hungary's only duty is to
keep out any migrant, even asylum seekers. They consider all asylum seekers as
illegal, irregular migrants. And they don't understand that European practice
requires humane treatment of asylum seekers."
Steve Peers,
professor of EU law and Human Rights, told
the BBC in the same programme:
“It's often the larger member states that have
been the strictest on asylum seekers. In the UK, for instance, certain types of
appeals won't prevent you from being expelled. In some countries it's almost
impossible to stop yourself from being expelled on an appeal which has a huge
practical impact on whether you can make a successful claim for asylum."
What's next after ‘liberal democracy’?
While restrictive policies towards migrants
and asylum seekers have fluctuated over the years,
Europe is becoming more harsh and even violent in its treatment of foreigners.
The Council of Europe has itself just reported that: “Xenophobic populism and hate speech
have continued to be on the rise in 2017”.
The annual report of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), which operates under the Council of Europe, attributes the increase in “fear” and
“resentment” as being “largely due to high levels of migration, religious
extremism, and terrorist attacks”. It is noteworthy that in a 52 page report on
the resurgent far-right in Europe, the word “austerity” is mentioned only once.
The ECRI calls “austerity-driven socio-economic climate” an
‘exacerbating’ factor. And leaves it at that.
The report also ominously notes that:
“The era of security threats also
brings with it a move to normalise the state of emergency in some countries.
Worse, these concerns have been exploited to justify huge trade-offs in
fundamental rights of migrants and other vulnerable groups.”
Unfortunately, the report offers
little in the way of real solutions. Instead the recommendations focus on more
effectively “managing migration”, “promoting equality” “prevent discrimination”
and “awareness raising”.
Viktor Orban declared the era of
‘liberal democracy’ to be over, during his most recent victory speech. He won
his third consecutive, fourth overall, term as prime minister. Orban’s
pronouncements may be somewhat premature, but he is not completely out of step
with the prevailing mood. The battle for what will replace (admittedly
self-proclaimed) liberal democracies has long been underway but how it
concludes is far from certain.
Any movement that seeks to push back against
this resurgent nationalism will have to address not only the policies
themselves, but the root causes that fuel their popular support.
This article was corrected on 5 June 2018. An earlier version stated that the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) is a European Union body. In fact, it is a Council of Europe body.